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Office Hours: Mondays: 9-11, Wednesdays, 2-3; and of course by appointment. Class meets in the Science Auditorium Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10:30-12:00 pm
Required Texts: Introducing Physical Geography, 4th Ed., Strahler and Strahler, Wiley, 2006. Geologic Map of Montana At times there may also be other handouts and readings Grading: Homework Exams: 3 midterms + Final Class Participation
15% 80% 5%
Check the schedule for proposed times for exams Homework is ungraded, i.e., you either get credit or you dont. However, I may ask you to redo an assignment if I think it is not up to snuff. Homework will generally be short (sometimes mindless) exercises intended to reinforce basic knowledge and ideas. Some of these will involve reproducing visual overviews found at the beginning of many of our textbooks chapters. Homework may include a Physical Map of the World, Mountain ranges of the world, Maps of Climate Zones, Land Use, Wind Patterns, Ocean Currents, etc. It would probably be a good idea to get some colored pencils or pens for the homework. These will also be helpful in the labs. For learning basic geographic facts and names check out: http://www.ilike2learn.com/
Introducing Geography
Geography can be subdivided into human geography and physical geography human geography examines economic, social and behavioral processes
physical geography examines natural processes
Introducing Geography
Global
Regional
Tides
Milankovitch Cycles
music of the spheres
Interglacial
Glacial
Basic Tools
Maps
Temperature Patterns
Stronger seasonal heating and cooling on land produces asymmetry Poleward distortion of isotherms over northern high latitude oceans Equatorward distortion over subtropics
Ocean-Continent convergence
Dynamic Hydrosphere/Atmosphere: Clouds, winds, waves, currents, etc. (something similar on Jupiter and Mars, but different in magnitude and/or kind)
Dynamic Biosphere: you can see life on the Earth in the reflected radiation and in the fact that there is Oxygen in the atmosphere. Who knows?
Processes
Example: Convection
A convective thunderstorm
S (1 ) R 4 R T
2 2
T 18o C
But the observed Ts is about 15 C
Whats Missing
from the 0-D energy balance model?
Vertical structure
The greenhouse effect
Temperature Patterns
Stronger seasonal heating and cooling on land produces asymmetry Poleward distortion of isotherms over northern high latitude oceans Equatorward distortion over subtropics
Both atmospheric and ocean transport are crucial Buoyancy-driven convection drives vertical transport Latent heat is at least as important as sensible heat
What a single cell convection model would look like for a non-rotating earth
Thermal convection leads to formation of convection cell in each hemisphere Energy transported from equator toward poles What would prevailing wind direction be at the surface over N. America with this flow pattern on a rotating earth?
Coriolis Effect
The Coriolis Effect deflects moving objects to the right in the northern hemisphere and to the left in the southern.
Climate Zones
Circulation features are tied to regional climate Rising air associated with lots of precipitation
January
Precipitation
(mm/month) Very wet over tropics Seasonal shift (N/S) Monsoon regions Extremely dry subtropical highs Midlatitudes get more summer rain July rainfall looks like a map of forest cover
July
Biogeography
Shield
Western North American Mobile Belt
Platform
Ocean-Continent convergence
Tremolite (amphibole)
Biotite (mica)
Quartz
Feldsapr (albite)
Imagine the first rock and the cycles that it has been through.
Crustal Properties
Crust Density Composition Thickness
Thick: 20-70 km
Thin: 2-10 km
Age
Old:
up to 4 Byrs
Felsic
oceanic
~3.2
g/cm3
Mafic
Young:
<200 Mys
Flood basalts with several thick and thin layers. Each layer represents a separate eruption.
Ancient Moraines